1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the manufacture of containers and primarily to the assembly of a hollow sleeve preform onto a container in precisely positioned arrangement. The preform is taken from a stacked flattened condition to a position immediately above the container where it is opened and partially telescoped over the container in coaxial alignment therewith. The container neck or finish portion is retained and a reciprocatable apertured head member serves to lower the sleeve into an intermediate position on the container body while the container is held. The container is then elevated to further lower the sleeve with respect to the container body by the sleeve being in continued contact with apertured head which is stationarily maintained. The preform is thus finally assembled into precise position on the container body by such telescoping movement. The final shrinking of the preform onto the container, as can be performed by many appropriate physical conditions such as by heating, is not part of this invention.
2. Description of Prior Art
This invention comprises an improvement over the methods and apparatus disclosed in issued U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,767,496, issued Oct. 23, 1973; 3,802,942 issued Apr. 9, 1974; and 3,959,065 issued May 25, 1976, all of which are commonly owned with the present application. In each of these disclosures, a tubular sleeve is formed which is telescopically assembled onto the article from below by a push-up mechanism. None of these disclosures pertain to a sleeve which is stored in prefabricated flattened condition and then telescoped over the container in two or more stepwise telescoping operations to permit efficient and rapid assembly.
In many of the previously-disclosed processes and apparatuses for making composite containers having an integral plastic base or sleeve thereon, a manufactured glass bottle or jar is loaded onto a conveyor and preheated prior to mounting the plastic sleeve. The plastic sleeves carried on an underlying turret pass into alignment with the bottles and are moved vertically upwardly into telescopic assembly over the lower ends of the bottles. The sleeves are then carried on the bottles into a heating apparatus such as a tunnel oven wherein appropriate physical conditions shrink the sleeves into close-fitting conforming arrangement over the bottle surfaces were assembled. The heating apparatus commonly consists of a lengthwise oven through which the bottles are passed, the oven temperatures ranging from about 170.degree. to 800.degree. F., depending upon the plastic material selected to comprise the sleeves. U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,065, owned by the common assignee of this application, discloses method and apparatus which assure against dislocation of the sleeve on the bottle without external handling mechanism being required to retain the sleeve in place between its assembly point with the bottle and the shrinking oven.
The cap sealing of bottles has been conventionally performed in recent years to provide for reasons of sanitation, pilfer-proofing, safety and appearance; the further step of placing over and around the bottle, as well as preferably over at least a part of its closure, a tubular sleeve of heat-contracting synthetic resin material, severed to a prescribed length, and then sealing the sleeve to the bottle by thermal contraction. The synthetic resin tubing is usually pressed flat and delivered in rolls in many production processes, and since the tubing may or may not stay fully flattened depending upon its elastic memory, particularly where it is comprised of extremely flexible and resilient material, inefficiencies can and do occur when the severed lengths of tubing are fitted onto the bottle necks.
It is also possible to apply the tubes around the bottle necks without preforming the material, as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,861,918 to Muto; however, such method requires the application of a bonding agent to the bottle neck for adherence of the sleeve. The method and apparatus disclosed by this patent are exceedingly more complex than the present invention, and prone to occasionally misapply or fail to apply a tubular band or label. U.S. Pat. No. 2,852,899 to Murrell discloses a collar feeding mechanism which is designed to remove only the lowermost collar from a nested stack by frictional engagement with its inner surface. The collars are preformed and nested tightly into a stack from which they are deliverable onto the container necks.